Trump begins sell-out of Ukraine, following Putin's script
Trump as a "Russian Asset"
“There's no arguing with stupid."
BACKGROUND
See,
1) Stefanie Bolzen, Alfred Hackensberger, und Dominik Kalus, “UKRAINE-KRIEG: ‘Er hat sogar mein Wahlkampfmotto gebraucht’, freut sich Trump nach dem Telefonat mit Putin,” Die Welt, den 13. Februar 2924(03:31);
2) Stefanie Bolzen, Alfred Hackensberger, and Dominik Kalus, “UKRAINE WAR: ‘He even needed my campaign motto,’ Trump rejoices after the phone call with Putin,” Die Welt, February 13, 2025 (3:31 a.m.);
3) James Rowles, “International Law and the structural impediments to a ceasefire or peace settlement in Ukraine,” Trenchant Observations, November 8, 2022.
UPDATE
4) Danielle Sheridan (Defence Editor), “Ben Wallace: Trump’s Ukraine peace talks have echoes of Nazi appeasement; Former defence secretary warns there could be repeat of Neville Chamberlain’s ‘peace for our time’ moment,” The Telegraph, February 13, 2025(12:35 GMT);
5) Ben Wallace, “Ukraine’s betrayal proves we have entered an era of grave danger; The West has chosen dishonour in bowing to President Putin – and will be rewarded with more war,” The Telegraph, February 13, 2025 (12:47 GMT);
6) Ed Cumming, “Ex-intelligence chiefs believe Trump is an unwitting agent of Putin. Here’s why;The US president’s controversial ties to Russia are once again under close examination as he seeks to end the war in Ukraine,” The Telegraph, February 13, 2025 (8:51 p.m. GMT);
6) Susan B. Glasser, “It Took Trump Only Twenty-four Days to Sell Out Ukraine; Amid the chaos in Washington, the President’s phone call with Putin has Moscow filled with glee,” The New Yorker, February 13, 2025;
The echoes of Munich in September 1938 were deafening, as Donald Trump began selling out Ukraine to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on February 12, 2025.
At Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Ėdouard Daladier agreed with Italy and Germany to cede the German-speaking Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany and Adolf Hitler, who was threatening a large-scale invasion to seize the territory. This agreement was reached over the heads of the Czechs who were not allowed to participate in negotiations over the future of their own country.
This was the culminating act of Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of Germany. The policy did not work, as Hitler violated the agreement almost immediately when he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and Poland on September 1, 1939, setting off World War II.
The situation with respect to Ukraine is different, but some of the mistakes made at Munich threaten to be made again. Donald Trump appears eager to negotiate a ceasefire or peace agreement over the heads of the Ukrainians, without their active participation, and then to impose it on the country. He seems ready to sell out Ukraine in exchange for an illusory ceasefire or peace agreement, just as the British and the French did with Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain was not sympathetic to Hitler, but only a very mistaken man who believed appeasement would bring peace.
Donald Trump, in contrast, is reportedly a “Russian asset”.1 He has lost no time in setting out to do Vladimir Putin’s work.
Pete Hegseth, the former Fox news commentator and now U.S. Defense Secretary, a boyish pretty face totally lacking in gravitas or qualifications, has given away Trump’s position at the Munich Security Conference, stating that 1) NATO membership for Ukraine was out of the question, and 2) that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to expect to return to its (internationally-recognized) borders of 2014, before the Russian invasions of that year
Look for more pro-Russian actions from Donald Trump, the American president who is reliably reported to ba a “Russian asset”.
Donald Trump is a brilliant politician and manipulator of popular opinion.
When it comes to substantive foreign policy, however, he is a profoundly ignorant and stupid man, as suggested by his statements that the U.S. would “take” and own Gaza and his threat to take back the Panama Canal. When asked by what authority the U.S. would “take” Gaza, he replied, “By the authority of the United States.”
At the moment, Trump is a at the zenith of his grandiosity and his illusion of omnipotence. He is about to learn that the realities of international politics are more intractable than he might have imagined.
While he disdains all law, and particularly international law, he is also about to learn that international law has teeth and cannot be ignored at his whim.
Any agreement recognizing Russian territorial gains achieved by military conquest would be void under peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens) from which there can be no derogation, not even by agreement between the parties.2
Consequently, even if Trump and Putin reached agreement recognizing Russia’s territorial gains achieved through the illegal use of force, and coerced Ukraine into accepting it, the agreement would be void under international law.
This Trump may have to learn the hard way when other countries refuse to recognize or support any such agreement.
The United States is looking at four years of foreign policy led by an incredibly ignorant and stupid president.
This is particularly galling for analysts because, “There's no arguing with stupid."
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James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harv Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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See, e.g., James Rowles, “"Russia's Man in Washington" Prepares Pro-Putin and Pro-Russian U.S. Administration; Goetz is a distraction. Tulsi Gabbard is the key to Russian infiltration,” Trenchant Observations, November 14, 2024.
See, e.g., James Rowles, “Ukraine: U.S. policy on "territorial concessions", peremptory norms of international law, and the history of U.S. policy over the last 90 years,” Trenchant Observations, May 13, 2023.